Indy Company Testing App to Screen for Head Injuries

Concussion inducing sports such as football, soccer, hockey, and even cheerleading
continue to keep parents, coaches and physicians on high alert for knowing
how to identify and treat dangerous head injuries. A company from Indianapolis,
called Brightlamp, says they are working to create technology that will
provide an easy way to test for the more than 80 percent of concussions
that go undiagnosedeach year, simply by using a new app named
Reflex. This is how the app is said to work:

  • When a player is suspected of having a concussion, app users can begin
    a verbal questionnaire and ask a series of easy questions like, “Do
    you know your name?” The reviewer will be looking for cognitive
    function, emotional function, and physical function.
  • Users will then be looking for light in his or her eye to check their pupils
    for dilation. To do this, the app flashes the phone’s light and
    takes a five second video. It is then sent back to the Brightlamp servers
    for analysis of pupil dilation speeds. A person with a concussion will
    have slower reactions, and less dilation.
  • Their program can relay this information back to the app in seconds, and
    it can even identify weak, less obvious concussions that may be hard to
    detect on the field.

Physicians say the app may be a good screening tool, but diagnoses should
be left to a medical professional. So, while Reflex makes its way through
a clinical review at Indiana University Health before being available
to consumers in less than two years, parents and coaches should be working
to establish prevention measures for athletes to avoid these head and
brain injuries and know how to recognize the warning signs and symptoms
associated.

Indiana University provides this list of concussion and head injury symptoms:

  • Headache
  • Confusion
  • Fuzzy or Blurry vision
  • Nausea or vomiting (early on)
  • Sensitivity to noise or light
  • Feeling sluggish, tired, or groggy
  • Feeling unusually irritable
  • Sleeping more or less than usual
  • Trouble falling asleep
  • More emotional
  • Nervousness or anxiety
  • Difficulty thinking clearly
  • Difficulty concentrating
  • Difficulty remembering new information

In recent years, researchers have linked athlete concussion and brain injury
rates to the prevalence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a neurodegenerative
disease found in people who have had multiple head injuries.

Most severe CTE is found in former professional players but high school
athletes have also been identified as a potential risk group. New findings
now say contact sports played by children of school age, such as football,
boxing, competitive BMX riding, wrestling, rugby, basketball and baseball,
can also affect mood, behavior and cognition from sustained brain injuries
that could lead to undiagnosed CTE.

Serious Head Injuries Can Be Prevented, Should Be Diagnosed Promptly

If you or your child has been suffering as a result of delayed diagnosis
of a concussion or a missed diagnosis of previous concussion or brain
injury, it maybe be difficult to complete simple daily tasks. Ongoing
medical, emotional, and therapeutic support may be necessary. We can help
by providing the legal assistance you need to focus on healing.

Call the medical malpractice and personal injury attorneys at
Wagner Reese for your FREE consultation at (888) 204-8440 or complete our
online form and one of our attorneys will be in touch.